Conventionally, as a bar-like article supplying apparatus of the type mentioned, there is a bar-like article supplying apparatus which includes as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. Heisei 1-38471, a lift holder disposed between a dolly and a supply port and having two tray holders mounted in an upwardly and downwardly symmetrical relationship thereon, such that the two holders are moved upwardly or downwardly while being turned spirally by 180 degrees, a first transport mechanism for transferring a tray horizontally from the dolly to the lower side tray holder of the lift holder, a rotary member for holding two tray holding frames in an upwardly and downwardly symmetrical relationship thereon and intermittently turning them over by 180 degrees, and a second transport mechanism for transferring a tray horizontally from the upper side tray holder of the lift holder to the corresponding tray holding frame in an erected condition of the rotary member.
In the bar-like article supplying apparatus, a tray in an inverted condition and another tray in an erected condition are individually held on the two tray holding frames of the rotary member, and while the rotary member is turned over and bar-like members are dropped and supplied from the tray in the inverted condition into the supply port, the emptied tray is returned from the tray holding frame in the erected condition to the upper side tray holder of the lift holder by the second transport mechanism. Then, the lift holder is turned and moved upwardly or downwardly to feed the empty tray to a lower limit position and simultaneously feed a next tray to an upper limit position, whereafter the next tray having arrived at the upper limit position is placed into the tray holding frame in the erected condition by the second transport mechanism. Simultaneously, the empty tray having arrived at the lower limit position is carried out into the dolly by the first transport mechanism, and then the dolly travels by a fixed pitch to carry a tray, which corresponds to a second next tray, from the dolly into the lower side tray holder of the lift holder by the first transport mechanism. Thereafter, the operations described above are repeated.
In such a conventional bar-like article supplying apparatus as described above, however, since a bar-like article cannot be supplied from the dolly to the supply port without passing the two carrying-in steps, the turning and upwardly moving step and the turning over step, the tray feeding distance from the dolly to the supply port is long, and there is a problem in that not only the construction of the apparatus is complicated and the overall size of the apparatus is great as much but also the cost is high.
Further, since it is necessary to turn and move the empty tray and next tray downwardly and upwardly, after an empty tray is carried out from the rotary member to the lift holder during supplying of bar-like articles from another tray, respectively, and then to carry the next tray from the lift holder into the rotary member to prepare the next tray, much time is required to complete preparations of the next trays, and besides, supply of next bar-like articles cannot be started unless the rotary member is turned over. If the processing rate of bar-like articles supplied is increased so that the time after starting until ending of supply of bar-like articles is shortened, a period of time for which no supply takes place occurs after supply of a tray for one carton is started until supply of a next tray is started, resulting in intermittent supply. As a result, a decrease of the processing rate of bar-like articles supplied to a rate at which supply of bar-like articles occurs continuously, and consequently, there is a problem in that an increase of the overall processing rate cannot be anticipated.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bar-like article supplying apparatus wherein the tray feeding distance for feeding a tray from a dolly to a supply port is shortened and a next tray is prepared in a short time during supplying.